Makeup Tips For Girls With Glasses

Eyeglasses can make a big impact on your appearance, and styling your makeup to complement your eyeglass frames all comes down to personal preference. But here are a few trendy tips to help you look your best.

Lighten Up

Some eyeglass frames can cast dark shadows around the eyes in certain light.

Contouring your foundation can highlight key features, like the eyes.

To combat this, blend a lighter-toned foundation under your eyes and down the center of your nose. This technique, known as contouring, makes you appear fresher and highlights your eyes.

If you like, you can take this one step further and fully contour your face by bronzing your cheek bones, the top of your forehead and either side of your nose.

Be sure to fully blend the highlighting foundation and bronzer with your natural-colored face makeup.

Just Browsing

Eyebrow styling largely depends on the size and shape of your eyewear, as well as the thickness and contour of your eyebrows.

If you wear smaller frames or have naturally thin eyebrows, filling them in with a natural color can help attract attention to your eyes.

Full, defined, arched brows are in vogue right now. However, if you wear big, bold frames you might want to avoid heavy eyebrow makeup.

The same goes for those with naturally light hair or thinner eyebrows. You don't want to fill in your eyebrows with a color that's too dark or make them appear too full.

If you wear smaller, subtle frames, filling in your eyebrows with your natural color can help draw focus to your eyes and enhance your look.

Using an eyebrow pencil, or eyebrow powder and a thin brush, lightly fill in your eyebrows using short, dash-like strokes and following the natural arch of your brow.

On The Lid

Beauty magazines often advise pairing bold frames with subtle, natural-looking eye makeup. But that's not always the best choice. One look at eyeglass frame advertisements will demonstrate that you can go bold with your makeup, too.

Striking cat-eye eyeliner, highly defined eyelashes and pops of eye shadow color are all great ways to play up your eyes. If you're choosing a bright eye shadow color, remember to complement the color of your frames — you don't want them to clash, which can cheapen the look.

Read My Lips

As with any makeup look (bespectacled, or not), it's best to highlight either your eyes or your lips, and not overdo both. If you have eye-catching eyeglasses and love dramatic eye shadow, skip the bold lip and pair your look with a colorless gloss or slightly tinted lip balm.

Or pass up the dramatic eyes and wear thin eyeliner, mascara and a fun, bright-colored lipstick. This look is especially cute with vintage-style glasses.

Here's a slideshow of makeup strategies you might want to try with your eyewear:

Cleanliness Is Key

Wearing makeup is fun, but it can also increase your risk for eye irritation or even an eye infection. Always remove makeup completely before going to bed, including all mascara on both top and bottom eyelids. Also, replace your eye makeup at least every three months.

The Office on Women's Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides the following tips for keeping makeup safe:

Never share makeup. Always use a new sponge when trying products at a store, and insist that salespeople clean container openings with alcohol before applying to your skin.

Never add liquid to a product unless the label tells you to do so.

Throw away makeup if the color changes, or it starts to smell.

Keep makeup containers closed tightly when not in use.

Don't use cosmetics if you have an eye infection, such as conjunctivitis (pink eye). Throw away any makeup you were using when you first discovered the problem.

Choose The Right Eyeglasses

Using eye makeup is a waste of time if your eyeglass lenses are so full of reflections that no one can see your eyes. Anti-reflective coating will eliminate distracting reflections on your lenses and allow people to see the beauty and expressiveness of your eyes. AR coating also eliminates reflections in your glasses that can ruin a great photograph.

And please: stay away from cheap eyewear! Yes, it's great to pay a low price for something, but if you wear glasses every day, you need a pair that's going to look good and last. (Read "10 Reasons to Avoid Cheap Glasses" to see what we mean.)

Even if you routinely wear contact lenses, having a great-looking pair of glasses to wear as an alternative is a terrific way to add variety to your appearance. Experimenting with frame styles and makeup techniques will help you create the perfect look — whether you're heading to the office or the dance floor! AAV

About the Author: Nichole Baxter is a communications specialist for Dignity Health Medical Foundation. Previously she worked at AllAboutVision.com as a writer, editor and social media specialist. She also handled the site's practitioner marketing and public relations efforts. Before that she worked in political fundraising and in public relations for nonprofit organizations.